WINDHOEK – Team KIA Namibia rider, Martin Freyer has returned from a two-week training camp at the International World Cycling (UCI) Centre in Aigle, Switzerland. He described his time in Europe as an “experience of a life time”.
“It certainly helped broadened my knowledge about basic skills and the much-needed experience and I will try to improve the skills of local riders”.
Freyer’s trip came about after the UCI requested the Namibian Cycle Federation (NCF) if they had a mountain biker that would like to attend the course, upon which the NCF nominated the Windhoek-based athlete to go.
The training camp included three main training types; classroom sessions, field training and technical training rides.
The sessions where set up mostly to analyze footage of the riders and discuss their techniques. It also included teaching participants race-day preparation, training plans, goal setting and benchmarking, as well as analyzing world-class riders.
Field training consisted of setting up skill courses, practicing the pump-track, race-starts and slow speed skills. Each day included a training ride where participants applied and discussed methods learnt on the field towards real race situations and technical trails.
On the last weekend, the Namibian cyclist had the privilege of participating in a ‘small’ regional race, his first European race, which gave him loads of experience and insight of how racing is overseas.
He expressed the hope to spend more time in Europe next year to broaden his experience.
After his final school exam on 7th October, Freyer wants to conduct a workshop with different levels for children, beginners and advanced riders and he strongly believes teaching the younger generation of cyclists should be his utmost priority since this particular category is Namibia’s most promising division.